Play of the Virtues: Hildegard von Bingen 1098-1179

From the back of the poster for this performance (JPEG image, 263 Kb):

" 'Then I saw a very bright light in which I heard in prophetic meaning, the creation of a miraculous mode, a different kind of music... in praise of the Virtues who exhort themselves to the salvation of the people in whom the trickery of the devil fights back.'

"So Hildegard describes her vision of what was to become Ordo Virtutum ("The Play of the Virtues"), the earliest known morality play by some hundred years. In it the age-old battle for the soul of Humanity, fought between good and evil, is enacted through music. This performance attempts to bring the music to life through presentation of the work in something approaching its original dramatic context. In this way it is hoped that the vividness of Hildegard's vision will be brought home to the modern audience.

"Hildegard herself is a figure of larger than life proportions. Visionary, cosmologist, naturalist, poet, composer and playwright, she was justifiably famous in her own time. The abbess of a small convent on the Rhine in 12th century Germany, she corresponded with kings and emperors, popes and archbishops.

"Today too her fame is spreading as recognition of the importance of her work grows. It is now ten years since Hildegard's name became famous in the musical world through the Gothic Voices' recording A feather on the Breath of God. This concert both celebrates the anniversary of that recording and seeks to present a little-known but highly important example of Hildegard's musical composition."

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Read The Evening Post's review of this performance (JPEG image, 116 Kb)
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Download programme notes for this performance (Microsoft Word document, 49 Kb)

8pm 6, 8, 10 December 1991
Erskine College Chapel
Avon Street, Island Bay, Wellington
$20 / $9.50

dir. Peter Walls

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